Advice from veteran authors

[lost_in_own_world]

Hello Veteran writers.
I have started writing recently and I do it as a hobby. I struggle because I am not good at English.

I wanted to ask some advice -

• Is getting ChatGPT or some such AI tool is okay for getting your story spelling checked or proofreading? I do editing on my own and I always find many errors after posting that makes me unhappy later. Will using such tools be considered cheating?
• How do you recommend when to choose what kind of narration? I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?
• I know we are not expected to make any kind of bigoted comments or plot in our story. But if I want to show a bigoted person within my story - can their spoken dialogues have bigoted language? I mean if there is a story about KKK - can they be shown making comments about the Blacks? Will that flag my story?
• Are authors allowed to ask for monetary tips for their writing? At start of story or in their profiles?

Thanks a lot for your time.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Can we just fucking ban the Chat crap from this forum forever?

Just block the damn word in the bad word filter, K?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Is getting ChatGPT or some such AI tool is okay for getting your story spelling checked or proofreading? I do editing on my own and I always find many errors after posting that makes me unhappy later. Will using such tools be considered cheating?

The use of spell/grammar checking tools seems to be acceptable so long as they do not contribute to the actual content of the story by providing suggested options to what was written. Correcting what was written is fine, altering it with AI isn't.

How do you recommend when to choose what kind of narration? I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?

I consider who best has the knowledge necessary to properly tell the tale for all the characters involved. Sometimes the first person can accomplish this through the dialogue of others, and sometimes an omniscient third party fits the bill better.

I know we are not expected to make any kind of bigoted comments or plot in our story. But if I want to show a bigoted person within my story - can their spoken dialogues have bigoted language? I mean if there is a story about KKK - can they be shown making comments about the Blacks? Will that flag my story?

Context counts more than content. If there is legitimate need for the dialogue and it isn't intended to propagate hate, you should be fine.

Are authors allowed to ask for monetary tips for their writing? At start of story or in their profiles?

The simple answer is "No". Your profile can link to your Patreon site or similar.

 

[Voboy]

Hello Veteran writers.
I have started writing recently and I do it as a hobby. I struggle because I am not good at English.

I wanted to ask some advice -

• Is getting ChatGPT or some such AI tool is okay for getting your story spelling checked or proofreading? I do editing on my own and I always find many errors after posting that makes me unhappy later. Will using such tools be considered cheating?

You'll find few veteran writers here who support any use of LLMs, for various reasons. I, personally, think those who use them as a crutch are selling their own talent and abilities short, and that anyone who is actually proud to call themselves a writer has no business using any of them.

With that said? Helping English-language learners develop their writing is one of the very few defensible use cases I can see for ChatGPT and its ilk. I would stress that I'd only support that in an academic setting, however, with an instructor who can help guide you to use it responsibly.

I would not advise relying on LLMs, and I would support the site in removing your work.

• How do you recommend when to choose what kind of narration? I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?

For me, the characters tell me who should be narrating. If it's not apparent to me before I start, it becomes obvious within the first thousand words or so.

"The reasoning" will vary based on the individual writer. I generally feel most comfortable in first person, but then I really like my characters (as a rule) and I'm eager to give them agency. I find that is best done in first person. My exceptions are science-fiction, historical writing, or supernatural pieces: those "feel" better in third-person, as a general rule.

• I know we are not expected to make any kind of bigoted comments or plot in our story. But if I want to show a bigoted person within my story - can their spoken dialogues have bigoted language? I mean if there is a story about KKK - can they be shown making comments about the Blacks? Will that flag my story?

Nope. Perfectly fine. But you're likely to pay a price in reader views and votes if you make such characters sympathetic, still less heroic. A lot of readers do not separate writers from characters, so if you develop a loathsome character and give them a happy ending (or anything other than a sad ending), many readers will unfairly assume you're a racist, too.

• Are authors allowed to ask for monetary tips for their writing? At start of story or in their profiles?

I am not qualified to answer this. I think it's very rude to ask for money on a free site. It disrespects the environment the site owners here have established. I do not know whether it's "allowed," nor under which circumstances.

Thanks a lot for your time.

No problem. Good luck.

 

[FrancesScott]

Hello Veteran writers.

I’m not a veteran here, but I’ve been writing for some time in other places.

I have started writing recently and I do it as a hobby. I struggle because I am not good at English.

It must be hard to write in something other than your native tongue. I applaud your efforts.

I wanted to ask some advice -

• Is getting ChatGPT or some such AI tool is okay for getting your story spelling checked or proofreading? I do editing on my own and I always find many errors after posting that makes me unhappy later. Will using such tools be considered cheating?

Getting AI to suggest alternative phrasing is one of the main things that gets authors’ work rejected. If you want help, given English is not your first language, I suggest you look at what AI picks up as being wrong and then try to write it differently yourself.

• How do you recommend when to choose what kind of narration? I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?

I wrote on another thread that I’m quite self-aware of how I write. But, TBH, it’s mostly just obvious to me given the story which person and which tense the narrator should be. I don’t find myself thinking about it, the voice that works for me in a story is the one it seems obvious to adopt at the beginning.

• I know we are not expected to make any kind of bigoted comments or plot in our story. But if I want to show a bigoted person within my story - can their spoken dialogues have bigoted language? I mean if there is a story about KKK - can they be shown making comments about the Blacks? Will that flag my story?

You can make overly racist comments if the context suggests that they are overtly racist comments. What is frowned upon is endorsing racist points of view. If your gallant hero is an utter bigot, and it’s never mentioned that this is a problem, then that’s not going to fly.

• Are authors allowed to ask for monetary tips for their writing? At start of story or in their profiles?

I have seen some people include Buy Me A Coffee links in their profiles. You can link to a pay site like Patreon in your profile. But you can’t do either in a story.

Thanks a lot for your time.

Welcome!

 

[HeyAll]

I recently used Chatgpt for editing. I thought it did a pretty good job.

Though it didn't catch everything. Always use grammarly.com for a final check for typos.

 

[TheLobster]

Hello Veteran writers.

I’m not exactly a veteran, been writing for a little over a year, but I troll this site enough to hopefully have adequate answers to your questions

I have started writing recently and I do it as a hobby. I struggle because I am not good at English.

Being a non-native speaker myself, I can certainly sympathize. It gets better.

Is getting ChatGPT or some such AI tool is okay for getting your story spelling checked or proofreading? I do editing on my own and I always find many errors after posting that makes me unhappy later. Will using such tools be considered cheating?

If you let an LLM-based tool rephrase your sentences, especially over long stretches of prose, you run the risk of getting rejected for submitting AI-generated content. No one really knows what are the precise criteria for getting such rejection; it's one of the more closely guarded and probably the must speculated-upon secrets of the site. Lurk around this forum for more than five minutes and you will find plenty of threads asking why my story has gotten a rejection for AI.

The most sensible advice is therefore "don't". This thread provides plenty of advice how to self-edit your stories; I recommend it, as it's a very valuable skill in this craft.

How do you recommend when to choose what kind of narration? I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?

Lots (most?) of the stories here are essentially records of author's own fantasies, with the main character being a self-insert. This doesn't mean you cannot tell other types of stories with first-person PoV, but generally the popularity of this kind of perspective here is not reflective of its applicability to storytelling in general.

If you're just starting out and don't have a feel for it yet, "third-person limited" is probably the easiest and most natural. It's one where you write in third person but you describe the world and events from the point of view of a particular character. It doesn't have to be the same character throughout the whole story (just make sure to write different perspectives as different scenes), so you can tell it from multiple angles. And as much as some authors here snub at the so-called headhopping (narrating other characters' thoughts that the current PoV character may not know), your readers probably won't mind if you do it sparingly.

I know we are not expected to make any kind of bigoted comments or plot in our story. But if I want to show a bigoted person within my story - can their spoken dialogues have bigoted language? I mean if there is a story about KKK - can they be shown making comments about the Blacks? Will that flag my story?

Yes, of course. The site's content guidelines list only a few things that are off limits, mostly underage sex, bestiality, and sexualizing extreme violence. There's certainly nothing there against bigoted language, so if your story calls for a racist character you can make him use the hard-R without worry.

And yes, you can totally portray such characters as sympathetic as well; a significant portion of stories in the Interracial category do it. Readers' reception is obviously another matter, as your ratings will probably suffer if you miss their expectations (which, in most cases, are that a bigoted character will get karmic justice or at least won't thrive / have a happy ending).

Are authors allowed to ask for monetary tips for their writing? At start of story or in their profiles?

You cannot include links in stories that point outside of Literotica. I don't recall ever seeing someone just mentioning they have Patreon, Ko-fi, etc. in a story which probably means it's one of those discretionary things that moderator will reject your story for even if there is no formal rule (and honestly I don't know if there is). On the other hand, if you use the rather limited feature of "Support Links" in your profile options, links to certain support pages like Patreon or Amazon wishlists will appear next to your name at the end of every story.

The text on your profile page can include anything, though, including soliciting of donations. You cannot include actual working links here, however, so potential donors would have to copy-paste the URL.

Thanks a lot for your time.

No problem. Good luck!

 

[OddLove]

Hello Veteran writers.
I have started writing recently and I do it as a hobby. I struggle because I am not good at English.

I wanted to ask some advice -

• Is getting ChatGPT or some such AI tool is okay for getting your story spelling checked or proofreading? I do editing on my own and I always find many errors after posting that makes me unhappy later. Will using such tools be considered cheating?
• How do you recommend when to choose what kind of narration? I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?
• I know we are not expected to make any kind of bigoted comments or plot in our story. But if I want to show a bigoted person within my story - can their spoken dialogues have bigoted language? I mean if there is a story about KKK - can they be shown making comments about the Blacks? Will that flag my story?
• Are authors allowed to ask for monetary tips for their writing? At start of story or in their profiles?

Thanks a lot for your time.

Hey, I'm also not a veteran writer here, so I don't have a lot of advice. But I thought I'd share my opinion on writing/editing.

I stopped using Grammarly or any other grammar fixing software. I didn't stop using them because they weren't effect though, they actually work really good. I stopped using them because the more I depended on them, the more obvious it became that I was lacking fundamental writing skills.

I started using LibreOffice because it has spell check. Although sometimes it underlines some past tense words like 'thrusted' and 'squatted' because it thinks they're spelled incorrectly. But it's one hundred percent free and has spell check.

The other thing I use is a Read Aloud software so I can put head phones on and listen to my story. That is how I can most of my grammar mistakes. I just use Balabolka because it's also one hundred percent free. But I know there's web browser and other Word type software with Read Aloud features though.

Best of luck.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I started using LibreOffice because it has spell check. Although sometimes it underlines some past tense words like 'thrusted' and 'squatted' because it thinks they're spelled incorrectly.

That'd be because the standard past tense of "thrust" is "thrust". "Thrusted" does occasionally show up in print but it's unusual, and not recognised by dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster.

 

[SimonDoom]

• How do you recommend when to choose what kind of narration? I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?

Some people feel that first person narration immerses them more in the story, and that can be a very useful and important quality in erotica. My own default POV is third person limited free indirect style, when is third person told almost like it's in first person because the narrative tracks the POV character's voice, thoughts, and impressions and is limited to what they can directly experience. Omnisicient is better if you want to distance your narrator from the POV character, or reveal the points of view of multiple characters.

• I know we are not expected to make any kind of bigoted comments or plot in our story. But if I want to show a bigoted person within my story - can their spoken dialogues have bigoted language? I mean if there is a story about KKK - can they be shown making comments about the Blacks? Will that flag my story?

I'm not aware that there is a rule, per se, against stories that show a racially bigoted perspective, so as far as I know writing such a story wouldn't be "forbidden" by the site. You'd be sure to get plenty of disapproval if your story appeared to endorse bigotry as a good thing.

I'm not aware of any rule at all, however, that would prevent your story from being published just because it contains bigoted characters who say bigoted things, nor would it be wrong to write and publish such a story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm not aware that there is a rule, per se, against stories that show a racially bigoted perspective, so as far as I know writing such a story wouldn't be "forbidden" by the site. You'd be sure to get plenty of disapproval if your story appeared to endorse bigotry as a good thing.

I'm not aware of any rule at all, however, that would prevent your story from being published just because it contains bigoted characters who say bigoted things, nor would it be wrong to write and publish such a story.

Such things certainly have been published here in the past, though that's not always a guarantee of future policy.

(Not including the whole IR angle which I'll leave to those who have more appetite to discuss it.)

 

[lost_in_own_world]

Thanks a lot for all who answered. Much appreciated.
Even I feel to the comments that using AI makes you dependent on them. But I believe spell checks too are AI (of sort).

 

[gunhilltrain]

Thanks a lot for all who answered. Much appreciated.
Even I feel to the comments that using AI makes you dependent on them. But I believe spell checks too are AI (of sort).

Grammarly was developed in 2009, and I don't think AI was invented at that point. I don't know anything about ChatGPT and have never used it. A lot of stuff on some sites like Facebook seems to be created by AI and it usually sounds like a verbose travelogue or PR piece. I should find an example to show you.

Grammarly is hardly perfect, and it requires some judgment calls on your part. It will sometimes suggest a change that will make your writing sound more generic. There are a few things too subtle for it to handle and thus it makes its own errors. I still think it is worth using, but cautiously. Nothing can replace careful proofreading.

 

[OddLove]

That'd be because the standard past tense of "thrust" is "thrust". "Thrusted" does occasionally show up in print but it's unusual, and not recognised by dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster.

Oh my god, that sounds so awkward to me... 'Beefsteak scooted closer as he prepared to breed, then after he took a long and deep breath, he thrust deep inside of Milky', my brain can only hear thrust as present tense no matter how hard I try.

Maybe just a me problem.

SELF DESENSE EDIT: 'Beefsteak had known Milky for over half his life, so when Milky had asked him to trust her, he trusted her.' It sounds like that to me. Whoever decided Thrust was both past and present tense is a menace.

 

[Voboy]

Oh my god, that sounds so awkward to me... 'Beefsteak scooted closer as he prepared to breed, then after he took a long and deep breath, he thrust deep inside of Milky', my brain can only hear thrust as present tense no matter how hard I try.

Maybe just a me problem.

It is a me problem.

If Bramblethorn hadn't posted, I would have. The moment I saw "thrusted" in your post, I cringed.

 

[OddLove]

Thanks a lot for all who answered. Much appreciated.
Even I feel to the comments that using AI makes you dependent on them. But I believe spell checks too are AI (of sort).

Valid point IMO.

There's definitely a 'Dependency' of sorts for both.

But also, the only reason AI is even a bad word is because many people will have it write stories for them so they can pretend they wrote a story. But if it's only being used for grammar checking or translating, it's no different than having another person correct your grammar or a dual linguist translate your story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Grammarly was developed in 2009, and I don't think AI was invented at that point. I don't know anything about ChatGPT and have never used it. A lot of stuff on some sites like Facebook seems to be created by AI and it usually sounds like a verbose travelogue or PR piece. I should find an example to show you.

Grammarly is hardly perfect, and it requires some judgment calls on your part. It will sometimes suggest a change that will make your writing sound more generic. There are a few things too subtle for it to handle and thus it makes its own errors. I still think it is worth using, but cautiously. Nothing can replace careful proofreading.

You're right that Grammarly wasn't originally an AI product, but it is today.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Oh my god, that sounds so awkward to me... 'Beefsteak scooted closer as he prepared to breed, then after he took a long and deep breath, he thrust deep inside of Milky', my brain can only hear thrust as present tense no matter how hard I try.

Maybe just a me problem.

SELF DESENSE EDIT: 'Beefsteak had known Milky for over half his life, so when Milky had asked him to trust her, he trusted her.' It sounds like that to me. Whoever decided Thrust was both past and present tense is a menace.

Yep, "thrust" is an irregular verb meaning that it doesn't follow the standard rules for forming a past tense. Yes, it is inconsistent with how "trust" behaves. English is messy like that.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Valid point IMO.

There's definitely a 'Dependency' of sorts for both.

But also, the only reason AI is even a bad word is because many people will have it write stories for them so they can pretend they wrote a story. But if it's only being used for grammar checking or translating, it's no different than having another person correct your grammar or a dual linguist translate your story.

There are several other reasons why people object to use of large language models (the kind of "AI" under discussion here).

LLMs are typically trained on text scraped from all over the internet, including material subject to copyright. There's a philosophical argument about whether training an AI on publicly, legally available material is ethically different to a human learning the rules of grammar by reading that same material; some people feel that it's not.

It's a difficult question to answer, and personally I'm still undecided*, but the folk trying to sell LLM tech have taken a pretty shady approach by trying to bulldoze through without allowing for meaningful public debate on that question. The attitude is "well we already did it so there's no point arguing now about whether it was okay to do it."

Also, some of the content used to train LLMs is illegally sourced - e.g. somebody pirates an e-book, uploads the e-book on a file sharing site, and then that gets scraped and added to the data used to train a LLM. Pretty hard to defend the ethics of this.

This scraping process is often done in antisocial ways - website owners report getting hammered by LLM scraper bots constantly trying to download their content, running up bandwidth costs etc. There are standard website settings that owners can use to indicate that they don't want the site to be accessed by such bots, but not all bots respect those settings.

LLMs are often marketed in ways which mislead people as to how they work and what they can and can't do.

Both the training and the use of LLMs requires a lot of computation leading to heavy use of energy and water (although not as much as sometimes claimed by LLM opponents).

And the process used to teach LLMs what kinds of questions and answers are acceptable requires exposing underpaid workers to a ton of truly awful content: people being paid $2/hour (sometimes less) to read about rape, murder, necrophilia as a full-time job, with serious psychiatric consequences. https://www.theguardian.com/technol...ning-human-toll-content-moderator-meta-openai

*more accurately, I think the whole framework in which we're trying to answer this question is broken, but that would be a long discussion

 

[Britva415]

I see most use first person narrative and I copied that style but what is the reasoning behind it?

I think that most Lit authors (not to say most AH authors) don’t reason about it at all.

I think that it’s easier for most novice writers to write in first-person than third-person.

I think that first-person is just an automatic default voice for novice writers to write in, when they’re writing about some shit they wish would happen to them.

The fact that you’re even thinking about this question at all puts you out in front of most Lit authors.

Again - I‘m not talking about most AH authors.